Tax refunds

A tax refund or tax rebate is the money that you get back from HRMC if you paid too much in tax. By law, if you're travelling to temporary workplaces and paying to make your own way there, you could get a tax refund. On average, a 4-year tax refund claimed through RIFT amounts to £2,500 or £2,000 per year for people in the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS).

Tax returns

A tax return is how a taxpayer lets HMRC know their annual income, expenses and other personal circumstances. HMRC use it to calculate the tax you owe and claim tax allowances and tax reliefs you're entitled to. There are many reasons you may have to file a tax return, it's not just for the self-employed.

Advice

We’ve been helping people with the taxman since 1999. Our specialist teams work closely with HMRC to put the cash back in your pocket where it belongs. You can be sure that we know the rules inside out. Get in touch if you need help, it's what we're here for.

Our prices

We make our prices as simple as possible so that you don't find yourself with any unexpected bills for "hidden extras". All aftercare is included and any refund you get is covered by our RIFT Guarantee. There are no upfront charges. We'll handle everything with HMRC for you and even remind you when it's time to claim again next year.

About us

The RIFT Group is a family business based in Kent, founded by Jan Post in 1999. We're specialists in tax refunds and tax returns and we're the only company in our field to have been awarded the Institute of Customer Service "ServiceMark" for excellence in customer service. Get in touch to see how we can help you today.

CIS Tax Refunds - What information do I need?​

The most important information we need for your CIS tax return claim is:

Your pay and tax information - The monthly statements from your contractors should tell you what you've earned and the tax they've taken out. Officially, those are called "CIS statements", but they might be calling them wage slips or vouchers where you work.

Details of the sites you’ve worked on.

It's not a huge deal if you can’t remember the when and where of every site you’ve worked on. Just give us as much information as you can. Many of our customers work on the same sites so even if you don't have all the location details we probably do. We can also contact ex-employers for you if necessary.

Will I have to deal with HRMC?

Don't worry about dealing with HMRC, either. With a few signatures from you, we can talk to them for you as your official "agent". To do that you'll need to sign a form called 64-8 Authorising Your Agent. We can send it to you or you can download it and print them out.

As for other documents, anything you can send us from this list will be helpful. We can still chase the taxman for you without them, but the more information we go in with, the smoother and faster it'll go.

I haven't got my CIS statements. Can I still claim?

We might still be able to help you without some of this stuff. Get in touch to find out how. Send us what you have, and remember to keep all your CIS statements and receipts in a safe place from now on.

Use our tax calculator to find out what you're owed. If you're due a refund and would like us to claim for you and complete your CIS returns then fill in your details and we will be in touch.

You need evidence to support your CIS tax rebate claim.

It’s important to provide evidence to back up your claims. You can’t just pull a figure out of the air and stick it in your tax refund claim. The taxman won't cough up your refund without proof that you've overpaid. HMRC will want to see evidence for anything you're claiming tax back on. If they investigate your claim and you can’t prove it's honest, it'll quickly get messy for you. At best, you'll have to pay the money back. At worst, you'll be looking at fines or prosecution.

The good news is that keeping clean records is easier than it sounds. In fact, we find that people’s CIS tax rebate claims tend to go up in the second year. The reason: they've got better at keeping documents so we can claim for more for them!

That's why RIFT is your best bet for getting your money back from HMRC. With us working out your claim, there's never a reason for the taxman to complain. In fact, your refund is covered by our unique RIFT guarantee. If any money ever did need paying back, it would come out of our pocket, not yours!

Why not check if you're due anything back from HMRC by clicking on the green bar below? If you are, and you'd like us to help, fill out your details and we will be in touch with you.

CIS Tax Rebate Example

Malcolm has been self-employed under the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) since 2008. He didn’t pay much attention to his tax affairs, let alone his CIS return deadline. When he first contacted RIFT back in December 2012, he was dealing with four years’ worth of unpaid CIS tax returns and a demand from HMRC for £1,952 in unpaid tax, interest and penalties.

We worked closely with Malcolm to gather all the right information to handle his overdue CIS tax returns and file them safely with HMRC. Not only did we clear his tax bill, but Malcolm also got a refund of £4,350. And last year, Malcolm received a further CIS tax rebate of £1,761.

These days, he just gets in touch with RIFT every year and we take care of things from there.

Quick Links

CIS tax returns most popular questions

If you're self-employed and paid through the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS), you're probably due a tax refund.

You can also claim back a range of job-related expenses, including travel, meals, lodging, parking, tolls, tools, protective clothing, public liability insurance, phone bills, postage and stationery.

We’ll assess all your expenses and include them if they qualify. That way you'll be certain that everything on your claim is a genuinely allowable expense and you won't find HMRC knocking on your door asking for their money back. If you're a RIFT customer, you'll be covered by our RIFT Guarantee as well, so you've got even more peace of mind.

Sadly there are a number of unscrupulous tax refund advisors taking advantage of CIS workers at the moment. Read our blog on How to spot a CIS Refund Scam and keep yourself, and your money, safe.

If you want to see how much you could be due back from HMRC use our tax calculator and find out in seconds.

Yes it does. All self-employed people, including CIS workers, have to complete a tax return every year. The tax year ends on 5th April and you’ve got until 31st January the following year to send your tax return to HMRC.

At RIFT we complete your tax return for you, and claim your tax refund at the same time. Just tell us where you’ve worked, and when, and we’ll work out the cost of your travel. We’ll add any other job-related expenses you may have and fill in the tax forms for you, all you need to do is sign them.

We’ll send the forms to HMRC, handle any questions on your behalf and chase them if they don’t pay out in the agreed timescale – it’s all part of our service.

95% of our CIS customers get a tax refund, and the average value of the refunds is £2000 per year.

Use our tax calculator to find out how much you could have waiting for you at HMRC.